Sparta will kick off the tournament season today at the Reedsburg Dual Invite. Joining Sparta in Reedsburg will be Lancaster, Oregon, River Ridge, Monroe, Westby and Racine Horlick. The presence of Westby takes on new meaning as they are a Division Two team that the Spartans will have to keep tabs on for the tournament season.
The usual cast of characters will be competing this year at the invite with the exception of River Ridge, who replaces Madison West from last year’s invite. Sparta looks to improve upon last year’s 2nd place showing after Oregon defeated Sparta 37-34 in a tight dual. Reedsburg brings a tough team as well. The Beavers are an honorable mention in Division One and return a team that placed third last year while losing to Sparta 36-30.
In Round One, Sparta will take on the Cheesemakers of Monroe. In the second round, the Spartans meet Westby for what should be an interesting matchup of teams garnering honorable mention status in Division Two. After that, the Spartans face Racine Horlick, a team they have never lost too in all their years in Reedsburg. Rounds four and five depend entirely on how Sparta does in the first three rounds and how the other teams fare against each other. I would expect the match against Westby to be close and I’m not sure what Oregon brings to the table, but they wouldn’t meet until the later rounds anyway. I would be shocked if the Spartans lost to Racine Horlick so I think Sparta’s fate at the tournament is largely tied to the Westby match. At the same time, I’m not sure how good Monroe is, but after the Spartans beat Madison West 64-3 last year and Monroe only beat them 40-30, my guess would be the Spartans have the edge.
We’ll be updating throughout the day as I find out results. I’ll try to get the results up as soon as I can. If, for some reason, this page is not being regularly updated, you can always follow the action on Trackwrestling.com. Lastly, I will try to get updates from the middle school Spartans in Tomah and from the JV at La Crosse Central and get them up here by the end of the day. Be sure to keep checking back here for updates!